Energy and Biomed Boom This Week

In trading this week, the Dow opened Monday at 18,026.02 and closed the week up to 18,191.11 for a 165.09 point gain. The NASDAQ didn't perform as strongly, but a hot Friday saved the index from big losses. The NASDAQ opened at 5,018.35 and closed Friday at 5,003.55 for a loss of -15 points even. The S&P 500 performed much more closely to the Dow, opening at 2,110.23 and closing at 2,116.10 for a small gain of 5.87 points on the week.

In overseas trading this week, Europe was soft but rallied on Friday along with the rest of the world.

The Nikkei took a hit and bounced back, and the Hang Seng continued to hold relatively steady.

Global Power Equipment Is The Biggest Loser Of The Week. The Global Power Equipment Group (GLPW) takes the top spot as loser this week amid shareholder protest and potential SEC investigations. Shares of the company fell from over $12 on Thursday morning, plunging as low as $7.66 by the end of the week.

Tesla Lost Less Money Than We Thought. Tesla (TSLA) turned in a solid Q1 performance, but it's not because the electric car maker was incredibly profitable. Tesla is still losing money every minute, it's just losing a little bit less of it. Tesla managed to deliver on the sales they've promised their shareholders, and do it $0.02 cheaper per share than expected.

Top 5 Penny Movers. This week's set of 5 penny movers come from the aerospace, energy, communications, and biomedical sectors. They're more diverse than last week, in part because of oil's rise to $60. Gevo (GEVO) Inc, for instance, took advantage of the rising price of oil and gained over 115% in the market this week. They opened at $2.45 per share on Monday, and closed the week at $5.30 after a selloff over $7.00.

Fate Therapeutics (FATE) also made big gains on the week. They opened at $4.79 and closed at $7.22, moving 50% in 5 days. It was the same story for Ceres Inc (CERE), another energy company, which saw share prices rise 50% from $1.74 to $2.54. Intercloud Systems (ICLD) was a mover last week too, and this week the communications stock added another 48%. Intercloud opened at $3.23 a closed out Friday at $3.96. Finally, aerospace contractor Micronet Enertec (MICT) moved 43%, rallying Monday from $2.57 to close the week at $3.42.

Consumer Confidence Way Down According To Gallup. A new report this week pegged consumer confidence in the economy at the lowest levels since Christmas. Gallup, which has been looking into consumer feelings about the economy since 1992, said earlier this week that confidence has fallen by another -9%. Consumer confidence is one of the key factors that go into consumer spending, so this lull in confidence has likely played into the spate of missed earnings reports in the first quarter.

Synageva Wins The Week. Synageva Biopharmaceuticals (GEVA) turned in a 130% gain this week, and it's all because they're getting acquired. Fellow pharmaceutical company Alexion (ALXN) is buying out Synageva, cashing in a huge amount of stock in order to make the $8.4 billion purchase. Share prices of Synageva more than doubled, moving from $108 to nearly $220 on Wednesday morning. The company

But it was a different story on Friday for Alexion (ALXN). Shares of the pharmaceutical giant took a hit on Thursday when the deal was announced. Shareholders are concerned that the $8.4 billion deal might be too big, but Alexion was well-placed to make the offer. As mentioned above, it held an enormous amount of stock, a large chunk of which was used to make the deal with Synageva (GEVA).

Snap-On Inc At All-Time Highs Following Earnings. Domestic toolmaker Snap-On Inc (SNA) had a stellar earnings report this sector, and the stock price has shot to all-time highs. The company ended Friday's rally at all-time highs after a week of steadily moving up the chart. Snap-On closed at $155.48.